Federal Judge on Texas Border Election’s Drugs for Votes Scheme: “This Is Disgusting”

MCALLEN, Texas — A federal judge in the Texas border city of McAllen delivered some harsh words to a campaign manager and a campaign worker as he sentenced them to prison for their role in buying votes with cocaine, cash, beer and cigarettes.

“We have brave men and women from area fighting for our rights, one of those sacred rights is the right to vote,” said Chief U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa. “I can think of nothing else that has caused more damage to the election process than what you have done … This is disgusting, this whole case is disgusting.”

The election that Hinojosa was referring to was the 2012 school board election in Donna. As Breitbart Texas previously reported, Donna ISD has a long history of corruption that continues to this day where school board members squander taxpayer’s money in lucrative contracts at will. The most recent contract deals with the hiring of a convicted felon as the school attorney at a rate of $300,000.

In regards to the voter fraud case, Francisco “Frankie Garcia and Diana Castaneda along with several others had previously pleaded guilty to giving cocaine bags, beer, cigarettes and payments of $5 to $10 to voters so they would elect their candidates, Breitbart Texas previously reported. In addition to buying the votes, Judge Hinojosa also said that Garcia had individuals abuse voter assistance services by going into the ballot box with elderly individuals and voting for them. Garcia also had people like Castaneda go visit elderly people at home and pay them so they could fill out their early voting ballots.

During the sentencing hearing, Hinojosa asked both Garcia and Castaneda about their income. According to their testimony while Garcia is employed in a local bottling plant, his wife works as a healthcare provider receiving government money to care for her mother and father.

During her testimony, Castaneda said she lived off taxpayer’s money since he also worked as a healthcare provider earning $1,600 per month to care for her mother in addition to receiving $500 per month in food stamps.

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